Ed Harris is both behind and in fromt of the camera in Appaloosa. The veteran actor directs and stars in this western.

He recently chatted with MoviesOnline about it:

Why do you thik women in the western genre are considered a threat to the male relationships in these films?
I guess because in terms of the day-to-day life of - especially the main characters in a Western are usually lawmen or else criminals, outlaws of some kind. You know, there’s really no room for a woman. In other words there’s no real place for her. Where does she fit in, in terms of this kind of rugged country, lawless land? So I guess that’s maybe what he meant.

In other words these are not domesticated men, necessarily. These are men who are traveling, who are traveling horseback, in this case, itinerant lawmen, really. They don’t really have a home. Their home is wherever they are. They’ve been traveling together for years. A certain bond has developed between the men in terms of trusting one another, relying on one another for their very survival. And so, where does a woman fit into that?